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To Your Health: Heart disease diagnosis to manage, not sentence to accept

<p>MOUNTAIN TOP &#8212; At 94, retired attorney and judge Conrad Amend enjoys playing checkers with his 10-year-old grandson, Ashton, listening to his 13-year-old granddaughter, Lauren, play the piano, and perhaps sharing a tale from his days as a U.S. Navy signalman with his 15-year-old grandson, Jakson.</p><p>&#8220;I had to work awful hard to win that war,&#8221; the World War II veteran said with a grin as he sat, surrounded by three grandchildren, on a living room sofa in the Mountain Top home of his son, Phil Amend.</p><p>The family is grateful to see their patriarch in good health and good spirits, several months after a Commonwealth Health doctor implanted a pacemaker into his heart during a minimally invasive procedure at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s more alert,&#8221; Jakson said. &#8220;He&#8217;s not as tired.&#8221;</p><p>Best of all, Phil said, he&#8217;s no longer receiving frantic calls from the Smith Health Care nursing home in Mountain Top, where Conrad Amend is a resident, telling him that his father&#8217;s heart rate has slowed to a dangerously low level &#8220;and that we could lose him.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re very appreciative that they told us he probably needed a pacemaker,&#8221; Phil Amend said.</p><p>What Conrad Amend received at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital wasn&#8217;t an old-fashioned pacemaker but a new &#8220;lead-less&#8221; &#8212; or wireless &#8212; variety manufactured by Micra Transcatheter Pacing System. About one-tenth as big as a conventional model, its size is similar to a large vitamin pill.</p><p>Because the small pacemaker uses no &#8220;leads,&#8221; or &#8220;wires,&#8221; there are fewer chances for complications, Dr. Matthew Stopper explained. Stopper is a cardiac electrophysiologist at Regional Hospital in Scranton who began implanting the new pacemakers about four months ago.</p><p>He did not implant Amend&#8217;s pacemaker, but he explained the advantages of the new model in an interview with the Times Leader. Among the benefits of the tiny, lead-less pacemaker over a conventional model, Stopper said, there is no need to create a &#8220;pocket&#8221; to contain the device in the patient&#8217;s chest.</p><p>&#8220;More importantly,&#8221; he said, &#8220;there are no wires that have to traverse the vein. Everything is contained inside the heart.&#8221;</p><p>The device is implanted via a catheter that goes into the groin and through a femoral artery into the heart, so there is no surgical incision to close. &#8220;The risk of complications, which is low with a conventional pacemaker, is even lower with this model,&#8221; Stopper said.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s really exciting that we have the ability to miniaturize all the technology,&#8221; Stopper said. &#8220;In a lot of ways, it seems a little futuristic like science fiction.&#8221;</p><p>So far, the new pacemaker can be used only in the 20 percent of patients who need pacing in the right ventricle of the heart. It will not help patients who need pacing in other chambers of the heart.</p><p>&#8220;We have to temper our excitement because it&#8217;s not right for everyone,&#8221; the doctor said. But he is optimistic similar technology may someday benefit the other 80 percent of heart patients.</p><p>&#8220;We think that&#8217;s a few years off,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Conrad Amend plays checkers with his grandchildren, Jakson Amend, left; Ashton Amend; and Lauren Amend, right; at their home in Nuangola. Conrad recently had a tiny pacemaker implanted that keeps his heartbeat finely regulated &#8212; and his grandson Ashton said his grandfather usually wins the board game. Mr. Amend is a retired attorney and judge from Ohio who moved to Pennsylvania to be closer to his son&#8217;s family. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_mr.amend_.withgrandkids.jpg</photo0><caption0>Conrad Amend plays checkers with his grandchildren, Jakson Amend, left; Ashton Amend; and Lauren Amend, right; at their home in Nuangola. Conrad recently had a tiny pacemaker implanted that keeps his heartbeat finely regulated &#8212; and his grandson Ashton said his grandfather usually wins the board game. Mr. Amend is a retired attorney and judge from Ohio who moved to Pennsylvania to be closer to his son&#8217;s family. </caption0><photoCredit0>Charlotte Bartizek | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_mr.amendwithashton.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Conrad Amend, 94, recently had a tiny pacemaker implanted in his heart through a vein in his leg. The device has allowed him to continue to play with his grandchildren, including 10-year-old Ashton Amend, right. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_mr.amendwithashton.jpg</photo1><caption1>Conrad Amend, 94, recently had a tiny pacemaker implanted in his heart through a vein in his leg. The device has allowed him to continue to play with his grandchildren, including 10-year-old Ashton Amend, right. </caption1><photoCredit1>Charlotte Bartizek | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Heart patient gains more quality time with family</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>PACEMAKER FACTS</strong></p><p><strong>Pacemakers are frequently used to treat bradycardia,</strong> a condition characterized by slow or irregular heart rhythm. Symptoms include dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath or fainting spells during normal activity or exercise.</p><p><strong>When a pacemakers senses the heart slowing,</strong> it sends electrical impulses to the heart to increase the heart rate.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Mountain Top resident benefits from procedure that implants tiny pacemaker